Irlandos at 15:30, December 27, 2006

2006-12-27T15:30:23Z

Irlandos at 18:04, March 31, 2006

2006-03-31T18:04:30Z

New page

In [[Greek mythology]] '''Iapetus''', or '''Iapetos''', was a [[Titan]], the son of [[Uranus]] and [[Gaia]], and father (by an [[Oceanid]] named [[Clymene]] or [[Asia (mythology)|Asia]]) of [[Atlas]], [[Prometheus]], [[Epimetheus]], and [[Menoetius]] and through Prometheus and Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race.

Iapetus is the one [[Titan]] mentioned by [[Homer]] in the ''[[Iliad]]'' (8.478–81) as being in [[Tartarus]] with [[Cronus]].

Iapetus' wife is normally a daughter of [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys]] named [[Clymene]] or [[Asia (mythology)|Asia]].

But in [[Aeschylus]]'s play ''Prometheus Bound'', Prometheus is son of the goddess [[Themis]] with no father named (but still with at least Atlas as a brother).

Since mostly the Titans indulge in marriage of brother and sister, it might be that Aeschylus is using an old tradition in which Themis is Iapetus' wife but that the Hesiodic tradition preferred that Themis and [[Mnemosyne]] be consorts of [[Zeus]] alone. But it would have been quite within Achaean practice for Zeus to have taken the wives of the Titans as his mistresses after throwing down their husbands.

Pausanias (8.27.15) writes:

:As I have already related, the boundary between [[Megalopolis]] and Heraea is at the source of the river Buphagus. The river got its name, they say, from a hero called Buphagus, the son of Iapetus and Thornax. This is what they call her in [[Laconia]] also. They also say that [[Artemis]] shot Buphagus on Mount Pholoe because he attempted an unholy sin against her godhead.

Buphagus is a tributary of the river [[Alpheus]], Thornax is a mountain between Sparta and Sellasia, and Pholoe is a mountain between [[Arcadia]] and [[Elis]].

[[Stephanus of Byzantium]] quotes [[Athenodorus of Tarsus]]:
:Anchiale, daughter of Iapetus, founded Anchiale (a city near Tarsus): her son was Cydnus, who gave his name to the river at Tarsus: the son of Cydnus was Parthenius, from whom the city was called Parthenia: afterwards the name was changed to Tarsus.

This may be the same Anchiale who appears in the ''[[Argonautica]]'' (1.1120f):

:And near it they heaped an altar of small stones, and wreathed their brows with oak leaves and paid heed to sacrifice, invoking the Mother of Dindymum, Most Venerable, Dweller in Phrygia, and Titias and Cyllenus, who alone of many are called dispensers of doom and assessors of the Idaean Mother, – the Idaean [[Dactyl|Dactyls]] of [[Crete]], whom once the nymph Anchiale, as she grasped with both hands the land of Oaxus, bare in the Dictaean cave.

Iapetus is sometimes equated by Creationists with [[Japheth]], the son of Noah, based on the similarity of their names, though scholars of Indo-European linguistics dispute such an equation vehemently.

== External link==
* [http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanIapetos.html Theoi Project: Ouranos: Iapetos]

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:Titans]]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 Iapetus' wife is normally a daughter of [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys]] named [[Clymene]] or [[Asia (mythology)|Asia]].
-But in [[Aeschylus]]'s play ''Prometheus Bound'', Prometheus is son of the goddess [[Themis]] with no father named (but still with at least Atlas as a brother).
+But in [[Aeschylus]]'s play ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', Prometheus is son of the goddess [[Themis]] with no father named (but still with at least Atlas as a brother).
 Since mostly the Titans indulge in marriage of brother and sister, it might be that Aeschylus is using an old tradition in which Themis is Iapetus' wife but that the Hesiodic tradition preferred that Themis and [[Mnemosyne]] be consorts of [[Zeus]] alone. But it would have been quite within Achaean practice for Zeus to have taken the wives of the Titans as his mistresses after throwing down their husbands.

Iapetus - Revision history

Irlandos at 15:30, December 27, 2006

Irlandos at 18:04, March 31, 2006